said, pulling her toward the aquarium and pointing to the tank in which the alligator, about eight inches long, lay blinking. "Say I" he repeated, grin- ning and excited. "Let's buy us an alligator, come on!" It was a tussle. They couldn't have both They couldn't afford to spend two dollars on foolishness. One of them had to give in. He kept bending over the tank, trying to stir up his alligator by rapping on the glass, and she kept asking him to look how pretty her log fire was; the red lights were lighted and it looked just as real. He didn't give a nickel how it looked. He craved that live alligator. She told him not to be a crazy thing. An alligator would be nothing hut a nuisance and he knew it. Where'd he keep it? Either he'd keep it in the bathtub, she said, where it would be in the way every minute, or else in one of her pans in the kitchen, w here it would scare folks to death stulnbling over it. He said he'd fix him up a place. He was bound to have that alligator, anybody could see. There was something about the way he crouched down to get on a level with the tank, and the excitement on his face as he rapped on the glass and talked to the alligator, trying to rouse it, that made you forget that the alligator was only eight inches long and probably mori- bund. It made you think of jungle movies, a little. She finally gave in. She tried to get him interested in something smaller- in a pair of little zebra fish or Mexican swordtails or a painted live turtle, or a little red salamander. The salamanders were real cute, she said, and only a dime. But he didn't pay any attention to her, so at last she gave in. She stood by cheerfully enough while the alligator was lifted from the tank and put in a carton with holes punched in the top. The minute the argument was over, she got her good humor back; she didn't seem to mind his having the alligator or to regret the loss of her imitation log fire. He took the carton very carefully and asked her, grinning like a kid, "Reckon he'll last till we get him home?" and she said, "Sure, he will," and smiled and took hold of his arm, and they went off together, on top of the world. She was just as pleased about the alligator as he was, now, be- cause a woman is right to give in to her man sometimes, like that, when it's not anything very important. The things she really wants, she'll get them, when the time comes. She knows how. -FRANCES WARFIELD 27 / --=::> ;Q r I ' / I 'J' A : -- . --: , 5'-- :;: --- .-- --- .0 C> Cóo a ---- ) --- -- -- -- -- --- -- e'/ waultin'! worry, tiear I r.)as stage-struck n yself at that age." . OF ALL THINGS W E all hope that the five-billion- dollar public-works program will put an end to the relief scandals. If all goes well, the pick arid shove I will displace the chisel. . Maine will get a big chunk of fed- eral money to start work on the Passa- maquoddy tidal dam. Nobody is sure that the thirty-million-dollar scheme will work, but our grandchildren will know by the time they get the bill. . The Navy is opposed to all measures modifying our neutral fights to the free- dom of the seas. If we lost that ad- mission ticket to the war, we mIght have trouhle getting in. . General Göring must have some appeal not visible at this distance. You have to admire a statesman who can get married to S.R.O. at a twelve-dollar top. . Three cents a day will now insure service in many New York hospitals. At that low rate, the masses can enjoy the luxury of crossing the street against a red light. . It is a helpful sign that Republicans are starting a magazIne called Tomor- . row as a rival to the New Deal journal, Today. Only a few months ago, the G.O.P. boys were telling us the coun- try had nothing to its name but a yes- terday. . The natives of our beautiful island took simple delight in the news that a patient had thrown a dentist out of the window. It was a clear case of wish- fulfillment. . As the result of a recent election, Wilbur Glenn Voliva has lost control of Zion City. It seems the sinners work- ed themselves up into a majority and tossed him out into the cold, flat world. . Mr. Brisbane speaks scornfully of foolish visitors to Florida who throw away their money on horse and dog races instead of buying good real estate. Only pikers lose their funds in small wads. -HOWARD BRUBAKER . . NéW éNGLAND HILLS The delicate spring comes very shyly here, Where passion such as hers is much abhorred By slopes half disapproved and half fear .- It wasn't these that skIpped before the Lord! -DAVID MORTON